US vetoes UN security council push to call for ceasefire in Gaza

The US has vetoed a UN security council push to call for a ceasefire in Gaza that Washington said would have emboldened Hamas.

The resolution demanded “an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” in the war between Israel and the Palestinian group, along with “the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages”.

The UN security council voted 14-1 in favor of the resolution sponsored by the 10 elected members on the 15-member council, but it was not adopted because of the US veto.

Israel’s UN ambassador, Danny Danon, said the resolution “was not a path to peace, it was a road map to more terror, more suffering and more bloodshed.

“Many of you attempted to pass this injustice. We thank the United States for exercising its veto.”

Robert Wood, deputy ambassador to the UN, said that the US position remained that there had “to be a linkage between a ceasefire and the release of hostages”.

The war was triggered by the assault on Israel by Hamas militants on 7 October 2023, a cross-border raid that killed 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

The health ministry in Gaza said the death toll from the resulting war had reached 43,985 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers the figures reliable.

Of 251 hostages seized during the 7 October attack, 97 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

Almost all of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, which has caused a humanitarian catastrophe.

Hamas condemned Washington as a “partner in the aggression against our people …

“It is a criminal, kills children and women and destroys civilian life in Gaza.”

Since the beginning of the conflict, the security council has struggled to speak with one voice, as the United States has used its veto power several times, although Russia and China have as well.

“China kept demanding stronger language,” said a US official who also claimed that Russia had been “pulling strings” with the countries responsible for pushing the latest resolution.

The few resolutions that the United States has allowed to pass by abstaining stopped short of calling for an unconditional and permanent ceasefire.

In March, the council called for a temporary ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, but this appeal was ignored by the warring parties.

And in June, the 15-member body pledged support for a US resolution that laid out a multistage ceasefire and hostage release plan that ultimately went nowhere.

“We regret that the council could have incorporated compromise language the UK put forward to bridge the existing gaps … With that language, this resolution should have been adopted,” Wood, the US envoy, said following the vote.

Ondina Blokar Drobic, Slovenia’s deputy ambassador to the UN, said “we regret the veto was cast, even more since this war, with its humanitarian impact and spillover effect, amounts to a serious threat to international peace and security”.

Some diplomats have expressed optimism that following Donald Trump’s election win, Joe Biden might be more flexible in his few remaining weeks in power.

They hoped for a repeat of December 2016 when then-president Barack Obama’s second term was finishing and the council passed a resolution calling for a halt to Israeli settlement building in the occupied territories, a first since 1979.

The United States refrained from using its veto then, a break from traditional US support for Israel on the sensitive issue of settlements.

“Once again, the US used its veto to ensure impunity for Israel as its forces continue to commit crimes against Palestinians in Gaza,” Human Rights Watch said.

The resolution vetoed on Wednesday calls for “safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale”, including in besieged northern Gaza, and denounces any attempt to starve Palestinians.

Majed Bamya, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, said Wednesday that “there’s no justification whatsoever for vetoing a resolution trying to stop atrocities”.